- With its initial public offering subscribed over 108 times, Urban Company may have passed the litmus test for now
- The company has been building a revenue stack over its common service professionals who also now happen to sell its products under the Native brand
- These gig workers may increasingly double as sales agents as Native is further expected to develop air conditioners, washing machines, and other electronic appliances
- While this approach differentiates Urban Company from its peers and has attracted investors, the going now may be tougher as service professionals may not want to remain off the payroll
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Urban Company’s moment of truth arrived with a bang. The home-services platform made a stellar stock market debut on 17 September, listing at over a 57% premium to its issue price after its Rs 1,900 crore IPO drew frenzied investor interest—103X subscription, to be exact. That’s despite the company’s frothy valuation of nearly Rs 15,000 crore, or about 12X its FY25 revenue.
Typically, investors would hesitate to buy into an overvalued company. But in Urban Company’s case, it was the country’s most subscribed mainboard IPO in 2025.
All thanks to the company reinventing itself in a space with scant competition. Over and above its promise of delivering home services, the company is now betting on its 55,000-odd gig workers to double as salespersons.
At the centre of this strategy is Urban Company’s Native line of products. Since its launch in 2023, Native has grown over 30X in revenue and now accounts for over 10% of Urban Company’s Rs 1,144 crore top line in FY25. All this simply by selling products while answering repair calls.
Basically, the idea is to fix a laptop, suggest upgrades, and sell some components. Or, fix a pipe and suggest a water purifier. It’s frictionless commerce, riding on routine services.
The idea works for both customers and sales professionals. While the former bears no additional burden of installation charges (for the Native product line), for the latter, each sale means inching closer to targets, earnings incentives, and ensuring repeat visits.
Investors seem to like this approach. It also helps that Urban Company did a 180 by turning profitable in FY25. The company’s bottom line stood at Rs 240 crore against a Rs 93 crore loss the previous year.
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